I have been watching every bat rescue vid I can find on Youtube. Meg, of Megabattie fame, does a bang up job of rescue and rehab for (mostly) flying foxes. I think I heard her say in one of the vids that her eyesight isn't what it was, so it's easier to see the 'bits' on the larger variety of bats. That and she doesn't really enjoy feeding meal worms to the microbats. (I, personally, find the megabats/flying foxes much cuter than the insect-eating bats and would prefer to work with them as well, were I to have a choice!
We do not have fruit bats, aka megabats, flying free here in the US. Our wild bats are strictly tiny, meat-eating variety. In fact, I don't think I knew that fruit bats looked a bit like a cross between a fox and a dog in the face until a few years ago. (Thanks, David Attenborough!)
All bats, whether large or small, fruit or meating eating, are extraordinary mammals. Bats spend a majority of their lives upside down. They eat upside down, give birth upside down and sleep upside down. What they don't do, appropriately, is relieve themselves upside down. Through a process known as inversion, bats flip right side up, hang on by their thumbs, empty bladder and/or bowel, then perform a little shake of their entire body before dangling once again by their feet. It's a little bit funny to watch the whole routine, but it gets the job done!
Speaking of funny, I found a vid of Meg's from a few years' back in which one of her colleagues caught a naughty juvenile bat taking a milk bottle from a holder and absconding with it. The only problem was that without actual hands with fingers, the poor battie couldn't figure out how to tip the bottle nipple down in order to procure the milk.
If you're keen to have a chuckle, then take a gander at this botched milk theft video--
Poor little beast. I am glad it was rewarded.
ReplyDeleteWe do have fruit bats, and I love them. I mourned when we lost a heap of them in summer fires and mourned again when others died when the air was seriously polluted (also by fires).
Power lines, fruit tree netting and barbed wire are no friend of the bat, either, from what I've learned watching Meg's videos. It's astounding to me that the federal gov't doesn't seem to be funding bat conservation efforts.
DeleteYou've been busy! I've seen some of Megabattie's videos before - the babies are incredibly cute. We've flying foxes all over the city and a colony descends on the trees around our apartment every evening. Watching the "bats" around dusk as they pour from their daytime roost to their evening playgrounds is quite the urban pastime. They do make a racket all night and poop all over the cars in the driveway but I wouldn't want them gone.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the bat goth nightclub video? Or do I remember that you were the one to find it? It's such a great illusion!
Yes, I have seen that video. It's really trippy!
DeleteIf it does that too often it will be too heavy to fly.
ReplyDeleteHaha!
DeleteThat's a great video. Except for the poor baby.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's very funny.
DeleteBats can be so cute.
ReplyDeleteVery!
DeleteThanks for sharing, Bea. Always appreciate a good laugh. I feel like bats have had bad PR because of their looks and the vampire movies.
ReplyDeleteWelcome! And, yes, bats do get a bad rap. I think that the flying fox variety because of its cute looks should be the face of the bat world. There would certainly be a greater interest in conservation efforts if we human found them irresistible.
DeleteYou know it. We only like cute things and even then we are bad. Still way too many dogs and cats in the shelters.
DeleteHaven't given much thought recently to bats so found this link interesting. Recall visiting Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico many years ago and viewing their massive exit at dusk. Cute video!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet that the dusk take-off was quite a site to behold!
DeleteDear Bea, this was a fascinating posting! Thank you. I know little about bats. In the past, I was extremely scared of them. When my furnace was replaced in 2004, a bat flew upstairs and onto my office curtain; I panicked. A neighbor kept me from killing it--yes, I was going to beat it to death with a broom. I'd never realized how violent fear could make me. It was certainly a lesson to me. Since then I've learned a lot more about how bats help all of us. Thanks for the video. It was delightful. Peace.
ReplyDeleteHi, Dee!
DeleteYes, bats are one of our pollinator species. The insect bats we have in No. America aren't as engaging as the fruit bats (like the one seen in the video), but nonetheless important for our survival.
May you be safe and well!
Bea x